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Board Man Gets Paid: Kawhi Leonard hate em but love em silent assassin.
Jun 18, 2019 at 11:08 AM
- DynastyChile
- Veteran
- Posts: 14,808
That series could have easily been a sweep without KD. To say with him they for sure would have beat Toronto IMO is ridiculous....Why it doesn't matter and the Raptors are the champs. Winning ships is just as much about staying healthy as anything else.
Jun 19, 2019 at 7:42 AM
- 49erKing
- Veteran
- Posts: 17,493
Originally posted by Joecool:Originally posted by 49erminion:Originally posted by titan:Originally posted by Joecool:This guy just did something nobody thought could be done: won a title without being Lebron James or the Warriors. Still hardly any real respect. When the Finals matchup was TOR and Warriors nobody thought TOR had any chance, even without KD.
I think TOR beats the Warriors with KD. The won 3 times in OAK and controlled almost every quarter of the series. It would be much closer with KD, but TOR would have won because they have the best player in the series.
Exactly my thought.
I thought the Bucks would have been a tougher matchup for the Warriors because of their defense and the fact that their offense was predicated on the three more than ever. Without KD I had Toronto winning in 7 games. Without KD and KT the result isn't suprising in the least. With KD and KT Toronto loses in 6 or 7 games.
Leonard makes the players on his team play at a higher level than does KD. You don't beat a team on their own court 3 times in the NBA Finals unless there is something you are doing that is dominant. I just don't see Warriors being able to handle Leonard. Even with KD and KT lighting it up in that first half of game 4, TOR was still only down single digits. They have a different type of poise and efficiency with Leonard on the court.
One overlooked fact that was key to the success of the Raptors was their play in the paint. GSW had no answer for Siakam/Gasol/Iblocka. Cousins was admirable in defeat down the stretch but it obviously wasnt enough. KD and KT would have kept the Raptors a lot more honest in how they used their bigs but those three were huge.